PA DLC USB

Recieved my Penny Arcade usb drive in the mail from the Downloadable Content kickstarter.
It has a flexible rubber-feel cover with the PA DLC logo.
It's 8GB and a little over half filled with:

• 40 mp3 from the DLC archives (2006-2009)
• 2 albums from Paul and Storm (Do You Like Star Wars and Learning Town)
• 1 album from MC Frontalot (Favoritism)
• 20 mp3 of PAX Q&A from almost all
• 1 PDF of Book 3 The Warsun Prophecies (circa 2002)
• 9 sizes of the DLC wallpaper jpg

I think I'll be busy for a while absorbing all of this material.

I've already been keeping up with the new DLC podcasts.

After Google Reader shutdown, I moved over to Feedly and I've been following my usual list of xkcd, penny arcade, table titans, trenches, and blastr. I have a few others that I check occasionally like zero punctuation, lifehacker, and slashdot.

Backlog 2: PAX, TV

Finally catching up on some PATV and DnD.
Watched the PATV s03e01 on PAX.
Also watched the DnD videos on youtube from PAX prime 2011 with the always great Chris Perkins from Wizards of the coast. It was entertaining, but overall not as great as previous. Lots of talking with less action and the music was distracting.

Also finally signed up for PAX East in Boston and booked a hotel room.

Enjoying Fringe and the Fringe podcast.
With only 1 episode left before the 2 month break.

Also watched Supernatural (on Hulu!)
and what? no more Castiel?!
The Leviathan and black ooze reminded me of Venom or XFiles (both alien references).

Also the body duplicates / dopplegangers reminded me of earlier episodes (covered in this wiki)

Timelines and alternative universes

Another theme, especially with the latest season of Fringe.

What verse are we in again? blue, red, amber/yellow/gold? This show really likes to show different sides of the same characters.

I've been watching on Hulu, despite the week delay before episodes are available.

This has put me behind on the show and the podcasts.

At the moment, I'm loading up the last 3 podcasts, getting prepared to listen along with watching the last episode s04e04.

Being behind worked out well, I've avoided waiting during this 2 week break between episodes.

In a related note is the recent Community episode s03e04, Remedial Chaos Theory.

I really enjoyed this one, where the 6 different outcomes of a die roll are shown (and the 7th outcome of the original timeline).

And where the evil study group is created in the worst outcome, which I hope does make a return later (fake goatees and all). Which reminded me of Bizarro Sealab 2021 somehow.

Podcasts Update

I finally finished the last Cutting the Cable Firefly podcast (about the Serenity movie) on my way home from work and it included by feedback!

I actually wasn't expecting to hear it read over the show, so it was a nice surprise.

feedback@cuttingthecablepodcast.com
Mon, Aug 15, 2011 at 10:25 PM
Summer's almost over!

Hey guys,

Just writing in to say thanks.
I started listening to the Fringe podcasts last season and it really made me appreciate the show more.
It felt like I was getting more than just one episode per week of Fringe.

And so this summer I've been listening to the Cutting the Cable podcasts, enjoying them just as much.
I've seen Firefly in the past and loved it.
Although I'm not watching the shows/movies along with the podcasts, I still enjoy listening.
To/from work and just traveling in general, on my second hand old mp3 player.
As I type, I'm loading up the last few to get caught up.

So thanks!
And soon the summer will be over, Fringe will be back, and I can watch Nathan on Castle.
Oh and I'm super jealous of you going to Comic Con.
I hope to go some day. I did go to the last PAX East in Boston which was fun.

-Matt

More DnD Podcasts

No sadly not more Penny Arcade DnD, but I was alerted to a Robot Chicken DnD game.

I found them as videos on Youtube but I used a nice free service to convert them to mp3s and listen as podcasts, http://www.youtube-mp3.org/.

I started to watch, but I realized I prefer listening. It's easier since I can listen on my commute. But mainly I enjoy imagining, which is harder when I'm staring at the players and reactions.

I think I'd probably listen to any DnD game hosted by Chris Perkins from Wizards of the Coast.

Podcasts and Music

For a while, I was only listening to NIN's Downward Spiral

To and from work, on the cassette tape in the car

(Yes just a cassette player in the 14 year old car)

But I finally started listening to the Cutting the Cable podcasts, especially those on Firefly.

Listening on the old 1G SanDisk mp3 player I inherited (looks like only $23 for one new)

This is apparently a summer project from Fringe podcasts guys (how I heard about it)

I'm not watching the Firefly episodes, but I do appreciate them more.

And I'm looking forward to watching them again at some point.

Probably on Netflix streaming, unless their pricing changes again.

TV, Fringe

Although I like XBMC, it is not without its issues.
Sometimes new shows are not picked up when trying to update the library.
I've seen this happen a few times.
But recently I found that exiting library mode, navigating to the show, and looking up the show information solved the problem.

I've gotten into Fringe more lately. I'm caught up with all episodes on Hulu.
There is s03e19 LSD in Olivia's mind with Inception-like creepy moments where everyone on the street stops and looks, and animation with zombies! Thankfully this episode ended Olivia's annoying Bell voice.
Then s03e20 6:02 AM with Peter and Olivia finally together, the surprise of the machine rejecting Peter, and the start of the machine's destructiveness.
And just finished s03e21 Sam Weiss explaining a little about Sam, and having the very dramatic moment of Peter and the machine with his life building up to that moment.
These episodes have been exciting and pulling the pieces together.
But now only one episode is left for the season! I have no idea where it is going, apparently the future?

Since I ran out of Penny Arcade DND podcasts, I went looking for a new podcast.
I stumbled across the Fringe podcast and I have enjoyed it so far.

Wore my superman shirt recently and finally watched an episode of Smallville after a long break.
Like Fringe, s10e12 titled Collateral took place inside the minds of the characters, in a virtual reality reminding me of the Matrix.
Over halfway through the final season!

Words, DND, Dead

I've gotten addicted to Words With Friends recently on iPod
I had a run with some good points, including wandS + joustS (52) - could have played gnawS (73), loving (30), Oracle + gO (48)
Those were in the same game, giving a 150+ lead. Also played hand (42) in another game.
I played best when I planned my next moves right after playing a word, so I had options and their points.

Finished Series 3 of the PA DND podcasts with the fall of Aeofel.
Just started Series 4, switching out Chris Perkins for Jerry as DM and adding Kris Straub. Definitely a different feeling, but a nice change. I do hope to see/hear more DND adventures with the previous characters and Chris.
I've also been catching up on older PATV, including the DND episode.

On the topic of DND, although I'm interested in it, I've never played.
I've mostly grown up playing video games:
Atari with Star Wars, Combat, Dig Dug, Off the Wall, Jungle Hunt, Frogger
Gameboy with Tetris, Super Mario, Metroid,...
Any arcade games like Centipede, Pac Man, Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter, Tekken, especially liked Spy Hunter,...
PC with Wolfenstein, Doom, Diablo, lots of free games on CDs including Descent,...
A friend's Nintendo with Super Mario, Double Dragon,...
A friend's Sega with Sonic
Tons of Super Nintendo with Donkey Kong Country, Ninja Turtles, Super Mario, Shaq Fu, Smart Ball, Super Ghouls & Goblins, F-Zero, Super Punchout,...
Other friend's consoles including Playstation like Tony Hawk and Guitar Hero,...
Wii with Sports and Super Smash Bros
More PC like GTA, Max Payne, Battlefield 2, Combat Arms, Half Life, Counter Strike, Left 4 Dead, Minecraft, Portal,.....
Ok, I'll stop, there are just too many to attempt to list and no way I will remember them all
But the point is, I've been a video game guy
And yes, I've played card and board games but definitely not as much, so DND is completely new for me

Read through the latest Walking Dead comic #83 and wow, it finally hit the fan in a big way. It came out a week early but I didn't get to finding out or reading it till this week.

TVness and PA

In catching up on shows...

Enjoyed the fun zombie Halloween episode of Community, s02e06 Epidemiology, recently.
Also enjoyed seeing Sam Oliver from Reaper on V s02e01. I really liked Reaper, and to me he brought a needed fresh feeling to V.

Watched the emotional Penny Arcade: The Series episode 107, Child's Play Part 2, recently and I loved the song at the end. In the credits I found it was hullamzoret two by failotron.

Also related to PA, I'm now listening to the series 2 DnD podcasts (Jim Darkmagic and Jim's magic missle FTW!)
I enjoy the occasional faint background noise of the store door open/close ding-dong.
And I enjoy listening to Chris Perkins from Wizards of the Coast, he should make audiobooks.

PAX East 2011 and DnD

Went to PAX East 2011 in Boston last weekend.
I expected it would be about gaming and comics, but really it ended up being about entertainment (lots of laughs) and community.

Friday 3/11
We arrived a little late at PAX and spent a lot of the initial time waiting in lines and trying to catch up to our schedule.
We got in to see the Blamimation panel with Scott Kurtz and Kris Straub. Loved it, very funny.
Later that night, we saw MC Frontalot at the concert. I think one of my favorite songs was "First World Problem". Only downside was that it was harder to hear the lyrics live, but still fun. He actually sounded more like MC Chris (who I'd love to see at PAX).
For Games: we played a game of Munchkin. During the game I was given a card that says "you are handsome" (with handsome written below a strikethough beautiful) with a link to this project on the back. We also played Zombie Dice on IPhone and ButtonMen both on IPhone and real dice. Also played Mario Kart on Nintendo DS. I got to see some of the DS culture, including Pokemon trading, and I doodled on Pictochat.
For Food: crappy Macro Vegetarian shanghai dumplings ($9 at convention). Later went to My Thai Vegan Cafe and had yummy coconut sweet potato soup, pineapple fried rice, and golden triangles (like samosas).

Saturday 3/12
We went to the Penny Arcade strip drawing where Mike and Jerry created the Ballin comic (about the Nintendo 3DS)
Went to geek parenting and game pitch panels. The pitch your game panel included Kris and was so funny (video on G4TV).
Saw Kris and Scott again at their late night panel with more laughs (straight dougin and #bottomlessfriendship)
For Games: played more Nintendo DS with download play Tetris, played Bulletstorm (Pic1, Pic2, Pic3) and BlackOps on the expo floor
For Food: Picked up 3 muffins (flat but thick like scones) at the Flour Bakery Cafe. Later went to a punk/hipster bar, Other Side Cafe, and had vegan BLT, guacamole and chips, and a strawberry/banana,OJ smoothie. Also picked up veggie udon noodles at the convention center ($10) and watched the rockband stage.

Sunday 3/13
We watched the Omegathon operation competition (players even had gloves and masks on).
Waited in more lines of course and saw the X-Play live show.
Stayed for the Penny Arcade Q&A with Mike and Jerry, leaving early to hop in the signing line. I had my badge and my "you are handsome" card (from Friday) signed.

We left a little early during the Omegathon finale.
For Games: Played centipede (Pic), burgertime, and chopper rescue at the classic arcade.
For Food: Had breakfast from the Flour Cafe again, fresh hot chocolate muffins with coffee+soymilk. Also had more from My Thai Vegan Cafe dinner right before we left including wontons, pad thai, and chocolate cake.

So it was a busy fun weekend with a few negatives. We had too many possible things on our schedule and spent a lot of time waiting in line for the events. There is so much to do there and I can imagine every person going to PAX would have a different story. Had about 4 hours sleep at nite. Hotel didn't have free internet. IPhone directions were aweful and ended up taking wrong turns. Parking was a pain but worked out in the end ($40 for weekend at convention, and we could have left the car there if the hotel shuttle was more available). There are classic/culture games at PAX that I have little/no experience in including DnD and Pokemon (I'm sure there are others, you could add Nintendo DS in general to the list). I never got to play the Last Night on Earth zombie board game I brought, hopefully next year will be more gaming.

Related to DnD, I recently watched the Wizards of the Coast PAX 2010 Dungeons & Dragons videos and also listened to almost all of series 1 podcasts (i'm hooked and was LOLing to it).